Charlotte Aten

I'm a mathematician, and I like combinatorics, universal algebra, and category theory. I also write software, and I know that spreading technical literacy is critical to building a better world.

Homepage: https://aten.cool
PeerTube: https://peertube.wtf/@caten
Pronouns: she/her

Public Key

npub126gtdmmz3nz5mdpkzuk54jhx6pnjvgxpnu8rjk3mfallmq8tghmsgg75xh

NIP-05 Address

caten_at_mathstodon.xyz@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs9dy9kaa3ge32dksmpwt22etndqeexyrqe7r3etga57llasr45tacprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuumwdae8gtnnda3kjctvqy28wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hspyxfz4

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relay.snort.social

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub126gtdmmz3nz5mdpkzuk54jhx6pnjvgxpnu8rjk3mfallmq8tghmsgg75xh

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Last Notes

2026-10-19 18:48:43 UTC

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And another thing: It's not lost on me that teaching and popularization, the act of cultivating students, is the work most similar to child care in math. It is the role to which the #patriarchy assigns women in the field. It reeks of #misogyny to declare that now that the "hard" part of doing math is over (which it's not, because LLMs are a farce) that we can *finally* turn our attention to these topics. If it's so important to teach, why are you only realizing this now that you need a new reason to keep getting funded? It sounds like you still think it's below you and are giving the women who disproportionately do it a backhanded complement.
#feminism

2026-10-19 18:27:00 UTC

Does anyone else find it offensive that the same rich, influential #math guys who are propping up this #LLM charade have now decided that we need to focus on the importance of teaching and other "soft" aspects of the field now that "AI has solved math"? Like the reason people accepted your use of money to dictate the direction of the field was because they thought (1) you were more skilled at math and (2) you had the best interests of the field at heart. Now we know that (2) isn't true and have good reason to think (1) isn't true in many cases either. The way we teach and research math does need to change, but we don't need these guys' permission to change it, especially when they're buddies with the fascists who have declared the #university their enemy.
#mathematics #politics #USpol #academia #research #education #teaching #AI #NoAI #capitalism #imperialism #oligarchy #fascism

2026-10-16 03:04:02 UTC

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If the fediverse is feeling more charitable towards me today, these are the links:
https://liberapay.com/caten/
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/charlotteaten
https://ko-fi.com/charlotteaten

2026-10-16 03:03:00 UTC

I try to keep my focus on what's positive, but it's been hard lately. I tried to get help on here finding a job or even some small financial support since my partner and I spent the last of our money getting out of a bad situation and moving to #Portland, #Oregon. I appreciated everyone's boosts but nothing came of it. I'm looking elsewhere for support, but it's getting too late to make enough money to pay rent at the end of the month. I ran out of one of my medications and I have to wait until February to see a doctor about it. I would get some on the grey market, if it's still possible, but rent is a higher priority. I can function without it, but everything wears me out faster. I get annoyed more easily.
People keep emailing me inviting me to "train #AI" or contribute to some #LLM math project. I regret the extent I was ever involved with machine learning, and now it feels like I'm being punished. Obviously I don't take the work.
#trans #transgender #math #mathematics #MachineLearning #GetFediHired #MutualAid #MutualAidRequest

2026-10-15 03:42:37 UTC

Does anyone else ever worry that the scientific method doesn't work and instead it's just that any heavy computation (like doing a bunch of math in order to model some phenomenon) exhausts the local resources and makes the universe more malleable? Maybe we just tell ourselves that math is unreasonably effective because the truth that it's damaging the fabric of reality is too disturbing.
#math #mathematics #science #ScientificMethod #ScienceFiction #philosophy

2026-09-24 01:59:04 UTC

RE: https://mathstodon.xyz/@caten/117288818301775210
It's been about a week and while this post got a lot of attention, it only generated a single lead, which was a job in Europe. I am pursuing some opportunities I've found elsewhere, but I'm not sure how close I am to paying the bills each month. If you would like to support me as I try to find an ethical way to make a living while sharing my knowledge, please consider donating at one of the links below:
https://liberapay.com/caten/
https://buymeacoffee.com/charlotteaten
https://ko-fi.com/charlotteaten
Once I finish getting set up in my new place you will see more of me again as I return to producing videos about my research. I'm not sure whether I will livestream again since I'm on #PeerTube instead of #Twitch or #YouTube, but there will definitely be medium-length videos. A great way to keep me doing this kind of stuff is to donate to me so that it makes economic sense for me to do so. I'm trying to live a simple lifestyle, so even $20 is a big help.
#math #mathematics #GetFediHired #FediHire #trans #transgender #Oregon #PortlandOR #PortlandOregon #academia #software #SoftwareEngineering #college #research #teaching #MutualAid #MutualAidRequest
#note1es4…nr6q

2026-09-17 22:48:57 UTC

Hello #Portland! I'm a #trans mathematician who left the university for an abortive attempt at #homesteading. I ended up in an abusive situation and spent the rest of my money fleeing to the #PNW, where I'm looking to #GetFediHired and hopefully still live a #solarpunk lifestyle. In addition to broad experience with mathematics research and #teaching, I also write software. After years of writing #Python I've been getting into #Lua and #CPlusPlus. For a recent example of my work in both regards see https://aten.cool/documents/papers/A%20rock-paper-scissors%20Mandelbrot%20set%20[2026].pdf
I'm open to online and part-time work. Basically my goal is to work enough to support a modest lifestyle while keeping enough of my time open to do #math #research, learn new skills, and generally live a good life. This work should be contributing positively to my community, whether local to the #PDX or more globally construed. While I have both pure and applied knowledge of machine learning, this means #NoAI, no LLM, no crypto, etc.
If you have an opportunity that might fit this description, please reach out here or via email (charlotte.aten@posteo.net). I'm very interested in sharing my knowledge outside the US and I may be able to work for less than typical for an American with my skill set.
My CV: https://aten.cool/documents/curriculum_vitae.pdf
#mathematics #FediHire #transgender #Oregon #PortlandOR #PortlandOregon #academia #software #SoftwareEngineering #college

2026-07-30 19:05:56 UTC

If I ever need to do something clever, I just imagine what a smart person would do and then do that. I hope you find this helpful.
#humor #intelligence #LifeHack #logic

2026-07-30 13:39:46 UTC

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This terminology is irksome when students who spent years with "linear functions" have to learn that they are not in general "linear" in the mathematical sense.

2026-07-25 13:28:46 UTC

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Your company should install home security cameras for free in exchange for the training data.

2026-04-02 21:28:59 UTC

I am leaving the university system, possibly forever, at the end of this month. I will be living in the woods, studying mathematics and (hopefully) farming enough to survive. I have posted an essay explaining why I'm doing this on my website:
https://aten.cool/leaving_university_2026.html
#math #research #academia #USpol #mathematics #trans #transgender #farming #solarpunk #fascism #university

2026-01-16 03:11:47 UTC

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I guess I just can't bring myself to trust my communications to a system that was made by people who were investigated for spying on the US for Israel. I hope that I'm just being paranoid, but it can't hurt to be careful these days.

2026-01-16 03:05:11 UTC

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Idk, the standard could intentionally configure your communications in a way that is more easily monitored via some other pathway the attacker controls. There's also the issue of people relying on reference implementations that may have some less subtle designed flaw.

2026-01-16 02:54:00 UTC

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I have a bad impression of Matrix, both in terms of culture and pedigree (that Amdocs company sounds sketchy). There are people who say it's lacking technically, but I can't speak to this myself.

2026-01-15 23:13:28 UTC

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Why not WhatsApp -> #XMPP ?

2026-01-11 00:50:26 UTC

I received and rejected my first plenary talk invitation recently. It was for the 2026 BLAST conference in Waco, Texas. Since I am transgender, it doesn't seem wise to visit Texas for any length of time. I told the conference organizers as much, and that I am disinclined to go anywhere I'm a second-class citizen.
As you can see at https://math.colorado.edu/blast/ I was one of the organizers for last year's BLAST meeting in Boulder, Colorado. I knew that the next two meetings would be in Texas and Indiana and passed along the same concerns (not just about trans people, but about women's safety) which I had already expressed to my fellow organizers in 2025. I got a polite response, but it's still tough to keep missing the next steps in my career progression because of things like this.
#math #academia #research #logic #algebra #topology #Texas #Colorado #Indiana #trans #transgender #feminism

2025-11-20 18:43:44 UTC

Today I learned that the English word «thing» originally meant some kind of legal meeting, and my perspective on phrases like «Are you going to the thing?» is forever changed. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_(assembly) for more information.
#English #etymology #history #language

2025-10-16 02:08:46 UTC

I was reading the Wikipedia page on the Clovis culture (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_culture) of ancient North America, as one does, when I came across a mention of the subsequent Folsom tradition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folsom_tradition). I'm used to streets in Boulder having Native American names like Arapaho, but I didn't realize that Folsom, which has our math department at the end of it, was such a street.
As you can read about at https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/2015/02/23/george-mcjunkin-and-the-discovery-that-changed-american-archaeology/, Folsom is the name of a New Mexico town where the first evidence of these people was found. The discovery was made by a George McJunkin, who was quite the Western character. In addition to a name that sounds classically Western to my ear, McJunkin was a Black cowboy who was born into slavery in Texas but went on to become a rancher, archaeologist, and historian.
#Wikipedia #history #Colorado #NewMexico #Texas #archeology #BlackHistory #NativeAmerican #Boulder

2025-08-15 15:52:09 UTC

I keep hearing about people "distro hopping" from one Linux desktop distribution to the next. I never understood this. As a teenager in the 00s, I tried Fedora, but I wasn't ready for Linux (or maybe Linux wasn't ready for such casual users), so I dropped it quickly. I tried Ubuntu for like two seconds in my early 20s, hated the desktop environment, then used only Linux Mint for about the last decade. I recently switched to Linux Mint Debian Edition.
I like the clean feeling of a new install, but I have no desire to keep fiddling with my system and customizing everything over and over. It's tedious. I just want my computer to work. Am I the odd one out here?
#Linux #LinuxMint #Debian #LinuxMintDebianEdition #LinuxMintDE #LMDE #Fedora #DistroHopping #Ubuntu

2025-08-07 23:00:48 UTC

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I wonder if our neighbors over at #Palantir are turning off their computers...

2025-04-15 02:24:28 UTC

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I'm proud to see that my alma mater made the list.

2025-03-09 16:42:51 UTC

Why don't we write the logarithm like this? It feels like teaching students what logarithms are is way more painful than teaching roots, but this notation emphasizes that they are perfectly analogous.
I can provide my rough #TexLatex source for this if people are interested.
#math #teaching #notation
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/114/133/445/374/683/906/original/215ba98e8bef8688.png

2025-03-02 20:22:29 UTC

I've switched to lurking here for a while due to the effects the current political situation in the US is having on me. I am making some big changes to how I do things, including how I livestream and host various products of my math research. I'll be posting about the steps I take as I take them.
I have switched from #Firefox to #Librewolf on my desktops. This was pretty easy since I have been storing my bookmarks as a plain text file on my desktop for a while now. Very portable. I just wish #VideoDownloadHelper worked on Librewolf.
I am looking into #XMPP now and trying to find a server to sign up for. Does anyone know any with open registration?
I have also recently gotten into #IRC again, and am excited to get more familiar with the #Pidgin client on desktop.
#math #privacy #security #federation #software

2024-12-13 22:34:32 UTC

I updated my bio. I am still interested in machine learning, and I am continuing my own projects in this area, but this terminology has become synonymous with an ideology and culture to which I am diametrically opposed.
There is great value in tools like optical character recognition, speech recognition, and machine translation (when ethically applied). However, the current regime selling machine learning tools as products is completely disconnected from what I would view as a healthy and productive contribution to society.
I would still like to contribute to practical applications of mathematics in the world, and I hope that academia will continue to support my efforts to contribute in a way that supports everyone, not just a small cadre of plutocrats.
#MachineLearning #AI #math #ethics #research

2024-12-06 21:47:34 UTC

I'm on the mailing list for Spectra (https://lgbtmath.org/), a queer math organization, as well as their Outlist (https://lgbtmath.org/People.html). I'm not any more involved than that at the moment, but I'm now questioning my plans to help out more in the future.
This year, an election was held, the results of which are now nullified since it was apparently held a year ahead of schedule according to the bylaws. The situation appears acrimonious and I cannot yet determine whether leadership has acted in accordance with my own ethics.
The controversy appears to meld several extreme current political issues, and I am disappointed that it is not obvious where everyone stands. Sadly, connection to ethically dubious entities is part of being a mathematician in the US, and I hope that the first tax-exempt queer math organization is not one of them.
I might know more if I was on the organization's Discord, but given the mailing list discussion, I'm not sure if joining that platform with clarify things.
#queer #math #lgbt #academia

2024-12-04 17:26:54 UTC

I've been on a longer hiatus from livestreaming than I originally intended, but you can see me give a seminar talk this evening at the The New York City Category Theory Seminar:
https://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~noson/Seminar/index.html
I'll be talking about the invariant theory part of my thesis (https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.18063) at 7PM, New York time. I'll discuss how I found that every (positive) property of finite structures can be checked by counting small* substructures.
*Terms and conditions may apply. Small is constrained by the logical complexity of a property and may not conform to mundane notions of smallness in bad cases.
#CategoryTheory #combinatorics #logic #Bourbaki #algebra #AbstractAlgebra

2024-11-23 22:16:28 UTC

Did you know that desktop Firefox hides the ability to set custom search engines from users? I finally got fed up with DuckDuckGo and decided to make the change. In order to do this, you need to:
1) Go to about:config in your address bar.
2) Search for browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh
3) Click the + symbol to the right to change this setting to "true".
4) Under "Search" in the settings menu you will now see that you have a new "Add" button.
5) Click that, and you will be able to include a custom url for searches.
To get this url, the easiest thing to do is make a search in the desired engine, copy the resulting url (maybe removing some garbage, if you know how) and then changing the search query to %s
(1/2)
#Firefox #search #SearchEngine #Mozilla #DuckDuckGo

2024-10-18 17:15:37 UTC

I've found a citation of my own work on Wikipedia for the first time!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commutative_magma
Naturally, I read this page before I wrote my rock-paper-scissors paper. It's neat to see that my own work is now the citation for something that was unsourced "original research" on Wikipedia.
#math #research #Wikipedia #algebra #games #RockPaperScissors #AbstractAlgebra #UniversalAlgebra #combinatorics #GameTheory

2024-09-19 04:00:43 UTC

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I've just accepted that my name will not be pronounced correctly most of the time. Kudos to you for not throwing in the towel yet.